Office supplier uses workplace safety to take on monsters

Thanks to new health and safety guidelines, the employees at a U.K. office supplier are equipped to handle a host of workplace scenarios, including a “blood-thirsty vampire attack.”

Leicester, England-based Viking, which is part of Office Depot Inc., recently decided to have some fun with workplace safety, and find out whether its 1,300 employees were paying attention to internal health and safety guidelines, by addressing some “questionable” emergency situations.

The guidelines published to the company's website on Monday include what to do when “cats take over the world,” “evil robots want to enslave humanity,” and “zombies want to eat your brain.”

For an “alien invasion (but not the fun kind),” Viking recommends workers head to the staff kitchen, wrap themselves in tin foil and hope none of the aliens notice. And when “the floor inexplicably becomes lava,” workers are encouraged to climb onto their desks, push their least liked co-worker into the lava and then use that person as a raft to reach safety.

The illustrations were produced in the same style as Viking's normal health and safety guidelines, but the company said it didn't take long for employees to notice.

“We were really impressed with the reaction. It really shows that our staff is attentive and invested in everything that goes on here,” Gemma Terrar, Viking's European human resources business partner, said in a statement.